The BBC admits it got climate wrong, but it’s yet to get it right
The BBC belatedly admitted mistakes over its reporting of global warming after public pressure and official censure. but the reporting of climate change is still inadequate argue Prof Bill McGuire and Andrew Simms What did it take for the BBC to admit that its...
Renewable energy at all hours, year round, globally? The models now say ‘Yes’!
There is no shortage of evidence for humanity’s environmental crises. Data from a global catalogue of recent extreme weather events warns of a climate emergency. But is there also evidence for optimism? Paul Allen, project leader for the Zero Carbon Britain...
Happy 90th to the sane alternative pioneer
This week marks the 90th birthday of one of the pioneers of the new economics: James Robertson, one of the founders of the New Economics Foundation and a continuing inspiration to us at New Weather. It seemed like a good moment to reprise our 2016 interview with him...
Why have they made it so degrading to use services?
Yes, it is hot. The heat has also added a layer of what I can only describe as degradation to our public services. But before I describe it, I don't want to be pigeon-holed as someone who believes that all services should be managed by ministers, as they were before -...
Fire and flood: how we are overshooting the Earth
Our weather extremes are signs of a human population overshooting its planetary home, writes Prof Bill McGuire, what will it take to make us change course? How long can we go on prevaricating? How long can we hedge our bets when deciding if a particular natural...
Leaking water, draining finance: the case for putting water in public hands
In the middle of a heatwave and drought, it’s not just the leakage allowed by private water companies (as much as people actually use), but the money they drain from a vital piece of our national infrastructure that’s the problem, writes Miriam Stewart, from the...
To save the NHS we have to be a little critical
So the NHS is 70 years old, and – perhaps it is because it is currently under threat from serious underfunding – the coverage has been self-congratulatory. There is a lot to be congratulatory about, of course: free at the point of use and the egalitarian ethos. It...
Waves of political nostalgia drown-out a lethal heatwave
A record-breaking heatwave hints at a lethal new climate normal, writes Prof Bill McGuire, but you wouldn’t know as the obsession with Brexit drowns out real news Nostalgia is gripping the political agenda and not in a good way, with Brexit harking back to an imagined...
In praise of public purpose: a life story & the NHS 70th anniversary
This week is the 70th anniversary of the NHS. It was an extraordinary promise by a society to care for all its members, free at the point of use. It went rapidly from plan to reality in just three years and, decades later, as a mark of its success, the NHS still comes...
New publication: Can Design Catalyse the Great Transition?
Everything we make includes an element of design. But design isn't limited to household objects, clothes or buildings, it influences whole systems that shape the way we live. The climate crisis and corrosive inequality tell us that the systems we have need a redesign,...